Lords of Circumstance

He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.” — Psa.M cxii. 7.

HERE is one whom we may call the Lord of

circumstance. He does not feel that the

end is come when some threatening rumour

assails his ears. He does not stumble at the approach of frowning events. He is not the victim of panic, he is not the bondslave of paralysing fear. He is calm, self-possessed, quietly confident. What is the secret of his strength and assurance? In what stronghold has his soul made her home?

‘““His heart is fiwed.”” That is the first part of the great secret. His heart is not a vagrant seeking every night some new doorstep for lodging and shelter. His heart has lost the dissipating lust of wandering. It has settled down, and has resolved to put life to the proof in one supreme test. And that must be our secret too. There are some souls who are always on the road. They are vagrants. They have no settled habitation or abode. They spend a night with Theosophy, then a night with Christian Science, then a night with New Thought, then a night with Spiritualism, then a night with Jesus Christ, then — and soon,andsoon! You never know their spiritual address. If we call at their last lodging we are told they have “gone and left no address.” They go everywhere, but get nowhere! They are without a home, and therefore without a kingdom. Such souls are like reeds shaken with the wind; any

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howling circumstance makes them its slaves. But this man of the psalm had ceased his light flirtations with everything and everybody. His heart was fixed; he had settled

down.

“Trusting in the Lord.” That was the second and complementary part of his great secret. A God who could be trusted and he would trust in Him! That was the home of his soul, the dwelling place where his heart was stayed. God, the faithful God, supplied the major premise in all his reasonings. All his thinkings about everything began just here — in the holy, gracious, loving God. Whenever he wanted to form a judgment about anything he began with God. “I am Alpha.” He acknowledged that great affirmation, and God became the alpha in all his thoughts. His confidence rested in God, and there he made his rest.

And therefore he is not ‘afraid of evil tidings.” In the hurricane of circumstances he hears the still small voice. In the threatening furnace he sees “‘ One like unto the Son of Man.”? This man’s fight in life is not self versus circumstances. These are the combatants — a man abiding in the Lord versus any unfriendly circumstance that may stride along his road! And he is not afraid! “This is the victory which overcometh the world, even our faith.”